Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California. With a population of 329,427, as of the 2011 census, Santa Ana is the 57th most-populous city in the United States. Founded in 1869, Santa Ana is located in Southern California adjacent to the Santa Ana River, 10 miles away from the California coast. The city is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area which, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is the second largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with almost eighteen million people. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, of U.S. cities with more than 300,000 people, Santa Ana is the 4th-most densely populated behind only New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago, and slightly denser than Boston. Santa Ana lends its name to the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5), which runs through the city. It also shares its name with the nearby Santa Ana Mountains, and the Santa Ana winds, which have historically fueled seasonal wildfires throughout Southern California. The current Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metropolitan designation for the Orange County Area is Santa AnaÐAnaheimÐIrvine, California.

Now fully developed, Santa Ana has several distinct districts. The core of the city is the downtown area, which contains both retail and housing, as well as the Santa Ana Civic Center which is a dense campus of administrative buildings for both the city and the county of Orange. The civic center is also home to the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse. Several historic homes dating from the late 1800s can be found as well, and their preservation is a key issue as development of the downtown area continues. North of downtown is the “Midtown” district along Main St., home to entertainment destinations such as the Bowers Museum, MainPlace Mall, and the Discovery Science Center. Near the intersection of the Santa Ana Freeway and the Costa Mesa Freeway is the newly-designated “Metro East” area, which the city council has envisioned as a secondary mixed-use development district. Currently the area is occupied by several office towers, but little retail or housing. Also on the east side of the city is the Santa Ana Zoo, notable for its collection of monkeys and species from South and Central America. The south end of the city is part of the South Coast Metro area, which is shared with the city of Costa Mesa. South Coast Plaza, a major shopping center, is the primary destination of this area, which also contains several high-rise office and apartment buildings.

Santa Ana is the corporate headquarters of several companies including Behr Paint, CoreLogic, Corinthian Colleges, First American Corporation, Greenwood & Hall, Ingram Micro, The Orange County Register, Powerwave Technologies, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, STEC, TTM Technologies, and Wahoo’s Fish Taco. It also houses major regional headquarters for the Xerox corporation, Ultimate Software Ultimate Software, and T-Mobile. One of Santa Ana’s most notable businesses is the Rickenbacker musical instrument company, whose electric guitars and bass guitars earned fame in the hands of many rock and roll legends. Then Glenn L. Martin Company, a precursor to Lockheed Martin, was founded in Santa Ana in 1912 before merging with the Wright Company in 1916. In recent years, the nearby city of Irvine has outpaced Santa Ana in commercial growth, with the Irvine Business District located near John Wayne Airport. To compete with this, Santa Ana has approved commercial projects in the South Coast Metro area, as well as the “Metro East” development, located at the confluence of the Santa Ana Freeway and the Costa Mesa Freeway. The Historic South Main Business District contains many older retail shops and other small businesses. It extends from downtown Santa Ana southwards on Main Street to the South Coast Metro area.

Santa Ana Unified School District includes thirty-seven KÐ5 elementary schools, nine 6Ð8 intermediate schools, eight 9Ð12 high schools, five special schools, and one charter school.Some elementary schools include : John Adams Elementary School,Manuel Esqueda Elementary School,Diamond Elementary School. The school district provides an online accountability report card. Santa Ana Unified School District’s public high schools include Valley High School (Santa Ana), Middle College High School, Santa Ana High School, Saddleback High School, Century High School, newly opened Segerstrom Fundamental High School and Godinez Fundamental High School, and other public schools in the area, along with the Orange County High School of the Arts in the midtown district. The Roman Catholic Diocese operates Mater Dei High School. The Diocese also operates several KÐ8 schools in Santa Ana including: School of Our Lady, Saint Anne, Saint Barbara, and Saint Joseph. (Immaculate Heart Of Mary And Our Lady Of the Pillar schools were closed in 2005 and merged into the School of Our Lady which is located at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. The city is home to Santa Ana College, a two year public community college, as well as California Coast University, and the Orange County branch of the Art Institute of California. Taft Law School a correspondence law school is also based in Santa Ana. Detective Training Institute is a correspondence/distance learning institution that offers private investigator diplomas and is approved to operate by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. Career Networks Institute College is a post secondary occupational learning center for allied health is also based in the said city.

A few freeways run through Santa Ana, connecting the city to other areas in Orange County, the Greater Los Angeles Area, and beyond. The Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) heads north to Los Angeles, and south towards Southern Orange County and San Diego. The Garden Grove Freeway (State Route 22) runs along near Santa Ana’s northern border, connecting Long Beach to the west and the City of Orange to the east. The Costa Mesa Freeway (State Route 55) travels south to Costa Mesa; and then north to the Riverside Freeway (State Route 91), providing a connection to Riverside. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Santa Ana several times on weekdays with less frequent service on weekends. It operates its Pacific Surfliner between San Diego to the south and either Los Angeles or Paso Robles to the north (see Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center). Greyhound USA is the largest bus transportation service in Santa Ana. Greyhound serves the continental United States and Canada. The bus lines Crucero, Intercalifornias, and others serve all points into Mexico. Santa Ana is also served by Metrolink’s Orange County Line (Oceanside to Union Station), and Inland Empire-Orange County Line (San Bernardino to San Juan Capistrano).